(Read Daniel 6:11)
This morning we continue our series, “Grace that is Simply Amazing” by continuing our mini-series entitled, “Grace Based Success (Prosperity)”. Yesterday we looked at Daniel 6:11 and today I feel led to stay right there. The fact that Daniel prayed every day is very important. The Bible says, “Then the supervisors and satraps went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.”
Yesterday’s message was about our responsibility to pray. I have been teaching on God’s grace for years now and I told you that “Grace does not obviate you from your responsibility to pray.” Just because God is sovereign and He does everything by grace, it does not mean that you can simply sit back and take everything that happens to you as God’s will. No, the Father expects you to live by faith and to pray in-faith in order to access His grace for His best for your life.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. God has (past tense) already given you every spiritual blessing, in Christ, in heavenly places (Eph 1:3).
a) Praying from a position of grace means you believe God has already given you everything you need and that you have it already on the inside of you. This is much different than praying from a position of need, where you are asking God to give you something you believe you don’t have.
b) Praying from a position of grace means you don’t pray trying to get God to do it. You pray from the position that it’s already done!
c) When you pray from a position of grace you are not praying for the victory, you are praying FROM a position of victory.
d) Daniel was not afraid. He had already seen two kings come and go and he was still standing. The same God who saw him through King Nebuchadnezzar and King Belshazzar was going to see him through King Darius.
e) You cannot be in-fear and in-faith at the same time. Fear cancels out faith, just like faith cancels out fear. Daniel had more faith in God than fear for King Darius.
f) When you know God has all power and He has already prepared you for what you are facing, you are not afraid because your confidence is in His limitless power. You pray for help, but you are praying from a position of confidence.
2. God chose you, in Christ, before the world was made.
a) You are not a mistake. You were born WHEN you were born and WHERE you were born, because of WHY you were born! Daniel was in Babylon for a reason and you are wherever you are for a reason as well. That reason is God’s divine purpose!
b) You are not waiting on God to do what He planned to do in your life. God is actually waiting on you to believe and receive what He already planned to do through you, so He can manifest it.
c) God knew what He was going to do in, with and through Daniel. God was then looking for Daniel’s faith and he found it in Daniel when he prayed. Will God find faith in you? The faith that agrees with heaven from the earth?
3. God has freely given you everything He was going to give you, by His grace, in His Son.
a) Paul said, “God gave his Son for all of us. So now with Jesus, God will surely give us all things.” (Romans 8:32). If God gave you His best when He gave you His Son Jesus, then do you really think He would without anything from you?
b) When you received Jesus you also receive access to everything God planned for you to have, and access to the power you need in order to attain it.
*** To pray from a position of grace you must make a shift from living and praying from this world’s perspective, to living and praying from heaven’s perspective. You pray and ask God for help, knowing He has already given you everything you need to be successful and that He is committed to the plans He made for you before the world began!
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for teaching me about Your grace and my requirement to live by faith. I also thank You for teaching me to pray and to pray from a position of grace. There was a time in my life when I prayed from a position of need. I thought of all the things I needed, and I asked You to give them to me. There were times when my prayer consisted of simply laying out a laundry list of wishes before You. I now see why those prayers were ineffective. I was looking at things from the world’s perspective and not heaven’s. You put Your Spirit IN me, so I could learn to see things Your way and pray from a position of grace. I am learning. I now realize that You gave me Your when you gave me Your Son; and along with Jesus, You have also already freely given me all other things. Everything I need to succeed in life, to accomplish Your Kingdom plans and purposes for me, is already IN me. Now I am NOT praying asking for You to give it to me. I am praying knowing You have already given it to me, and my prayers now seek to access Your grace with my faith. My faith accesses Your grace to manifest Your best in my life. Grace-based prayers are effective, because they are the type of prayers You expect me to pray; seeing things from Your perspective, praying Your Kingdom plans and purposes, and seeking to manifest Your will in the earth. So from this day forward I shall pray from a position of grace, You will hear my prayers, You will manifest Your best in my life, and I will never be the same! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
